Thunderbird Arena serves as valuable final preparation location for Pyeongchang Olympic skaters

One month ago, Olympic-hopefuls showed up at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre to perform in the Canadian national figure skating championships with the dream of representing Canada in the Pyeongchang Winter Games.

The results of these championships culminated with the announcement of Canada’s Olympic figure skating team — the largest ever roster heading to Pyeongchang. Team Canada has medal contenders in every discipline and for the team figure skating events — and they all have their sights set on gold.

This past week, those hopes turned into a gold medal in the team event as well as a bronze medal for Eric Radford and Meagan Duhamel in the pairs event.

The national championships served as a crucial final competition for the athletes heading to Pyeongchang. It was clear that even the veteran competitors were feeling the pressure and using it as a stepping stone to improve their physical and mental performance.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who won Canada’s first Olympic gold medal in ice dance eight years ago in Vancouver, once again made history in Pyeongchang last Friday. They were the first-ever Canadian couple to carry the flag into the opening ceremonies. This Olympics, the duo have their sights on not one, but two Olympic gold medals — they already have one of them checked off the list from the team event.

Virtue and Moir welcomed the competition at Doug Mitchell last month as an opportunity to test out the new ending of their Moulin-Rouge inspired free dance. After the Grand Prix final in December, they reworked their choreography to include a bigger ending.

“This is a little bit, perhaps, more triumphant in a way ... because [the] love story gets to live a little bit longer and with more depth to it,” Virtue said after the free dance at the national championships.

Moir added that despite Tessa’s performed death at the end of the program, it was a critical moment in part due to the crowd. “We haven’t skated in front of an electric crowd like that more than five times in our careers, so it was pretty exciting,” he said.

The charged atmosphere in Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre was evident throughout the week with many athletes commenting on the overwhelming crowd reaction.

At the media announcement of the 2018 Olympic team, ice dancer Kaitlyn Weaver recalled being overcome with emotion when the “audience started reacting before our names were called [before the free dance]…. I can’t believe that happened and to achieve that support from the audience, to know that they were behind us personally, was an incredible feeling."

The event also marked the end of an era for Canadian figure skating as many of the current big names have hinted at retirement after the Games. The free programs of national champions Patrick Chan, Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, and Virtue and Moir were likely their last competitive skates on Canadian soil — and we got to see them here at Thunderbird.

Moir also noted that, “right from the beginning [the Moulin Rouge free dance is] one that we fought for and even still, after this long of training it we still connect with the music. It still ignites something in us like nothing else.”

Now the world will get to see it, just as UBC did just weeks ago, as figure skating events continue in Pyeongchang.

CBC will be covering the entire Pyeongchang Olympic games. Though the team skate ended last weekend with a gold for Canada, individual skating events will continue to air until February 22.

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